


In the Hunger Games, You Win or You Die

by BrienneofThrace



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-10
Updated: 2013-06-10
Packaged: 2017-12-14 12:27:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/836864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrienneofThrace/pseuds/BrienneofThrace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jaime selfishly feigns an alliance with fellow tribute Brienne of Tarth to gain support in the Games. But somewhere along the line,  real feelings start to muddle things up. </p><p>A response to a tumblr prompt for a Jaime/Brienne Hunger Games AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Hunger Games, You Win or You Die

**Author's Note:**

> For Cynicallyromantic18

Brienne presses her large, gentle hand to his wound, and Jaime’s breath hitches at her touch. The sound of the raging storm outside their tiny cave is thunderous and even in the low light of their shelter, her eyes are impossibly blue. 

As he moves his mouth up to kiss Brienne, a thousand voices are screaming in his head.

_Your sister is watching._

_The **world**  is watching._

_It’s alright._

_Cersei knows it isn’t real._

His sister knows this farcical romance with the ugly Tarth girl from his district is merely a ploy to garner favor with the public and the sponsors in the hope that maybe he’ll get out of this nightmare alive. 

Jaime was too bloody haughty and arrogant and perfect from the start and the people of Panem were not impressed. They knew it was all a huge mistake that the golden Lannister boy had ended up as a tribute in the first place.

Everyone but his own damn family was rooting for him to fail from the start. 

Then that ugly Aerys Targaryen business had leaked.

The odds were increasingly  _not_ in his favor as he lost favor with the viewers. The only way to salvage it and maybe keep himself alive was to feign some compassion for the sickeningly goodhearted but very unfortunate looking Brienne.

The alliance with Tarth was a surefire way to show he wasn’t some spoiled rich monster, and maybe get himself some sponsors. His magnificent swordsmanship could only get him so far.  

If his mentor is telling it true, it was his brilliant, scheming sister’s  _idea._

_So kissing the wench, as he so enjoyed calling her, isn’t a betrayal, really._

_It **isn’t real**. Cersei knows that. _

The trouble is, Jaime’s not sure  _ **he**  _knows it anymore.

Somewhere along the way, the lines between the act and reality had gotten blurred. Her courage and kindness and gentleness and strength had spun him about, and left him gasping as he tried to figure out who he was and what it was that he wanted.

 

As they struggled for survival side by side and faced equally horrifying human and non-human foes, he had found something in her he did not know he was looking for. Something he’d lost long ago.

When that Hoat bastard from District 2 took his hand and he’d been burning with fever and losing the will to live, that beast of woman with those dazzling eyes shook him back to life.

When the madness of his fever made him open up and tell his story about what really happened in King’s Landing, it changed the way she looked at him and it felt as though a great weight that had been pressing down on his chest had been lifted. 

And when his conscience got the better of him and he came back for her…when he willingly faced that monstrous bear-beast the Gamerunners had sent at her, _unarmed and missing a hand_ , the gratitude shining in her eyes had moved Jaime in ways he was still struggling to understand.

___

He leans forward, telling himself,  _It_ _’s for the cameras. It’s for the sponsors. It’s to get back to Cersei and put this horrific ordeal behind us._  

When his mouth meet meets Briennes, the heat pools low in his stomach and he reaches his good hand behind her head to keep her from pulling away.

She’s terribly shy and painfully awkward and has been from the moment he met her. He can feel her hesitation and fear as he kisses her, but the brief note he’d received indicated that all of Panem believes she’s in love with him. The cameras don’t lie and Jaime’s spent enough time being cared for and protected by her to believe there must be some truth to it. She feels something for him. She has to.

 _Kiss me back, girl,_ he thinks, pleadingly, running his tongue across her chapped, dry lips.

He desperately wills her to respond… and not because it’s what the people want to see and the only thing that will save his ass in this twisted game he’s been forced to play, but because he  _wants her to and **needs**  her to, even if he doesn’t understand why. _

Just as Jaime’s preparing to release his grip on her (because she hasn’t responded and he’s not going to kiss a girl against her will, regardless of what his father or his sister or the sponsors say), Brienne tentatively starts to kiss back.

Jaime sinks into it, overwhelmingly relieved. 

The light press of her lips back against his is like a breath of air to a drowning man.

They’re dangerously low on water, out of food and their other supplies are dwindling as well, but right now there’s nothing he wants more than her lips on his. 

Jaime pushes up against her strong form, deepening the kiss and running his hands through her matted hair. She kisses back with clumsy, lovely desire and he swells with need.

Thoughts of the cameras, the viewers, the sponsors, his family,  _his sister_ all melt away until it’s just him and Brienne and this cave, this cramped, cold cave he isn’t sure he ever wants to leave if it means he has to stop touching her and tasting her and feeling her.

He’d only paired with the wench out of necessity, but in her he’d found something he truly needed without ever knowing that he did.

It’s too much. A confusing mess. He tries to shake off the unpleasant thoughts and just revel in the feel of her softly exploring lips. 

_There are only five tributes left._

It won’t be long before he has to start making decisions that would have seemed easy, the day he entered the arena but are now painful to even think about. 

Eventually it’s going to come down to him and Brienne. They’re the strongest, the smartest, the best team. But only one of them can win. While that would have made him simply shrug on that first day, today it makes him ache down to his core. 

Soon enough, he’ll have to face harsh reality.

 _But not tonight._  

For now, he eases Brienne gently onto her back, pressing hungry kisses into her neck and listening to her soft, pleasurable moans and feeling warm all over despite the cold of night. 


End file.
